1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printer device that prints an image to a printing paper using a thermal head formed with a plurality of heating resistors.
2. Description of the Related Art
A printer device for printing images and characters to a printing medium includes a thermal-transfer type of sublimating a coloring material of an ink layer formed to one surface of an ink ribbon, and thermally transferring the coloring material to the printing medium so that color images and characters are printed. The printer device of such a type is provided with a thermal head formed with a plurality of heating resistors for use to thermally transfer the coloring material of the ink ribbon to a printing paper, and a platen disposed at a position opposing the thermal head for supporting the ink ribbon and the printing paper.
In such a printer device, the ink ribbon is put together with the printing paper in such a manner that the ink ribbon comes on the thermal head side, and the printing paper comes on the platen side. The ink ribbon and the printing paper are made to run between the thermal head and the platen while being pressed against the thermal head by the platen. At this time, in the printer device, the ink ribbon running between the thermal head and the platen is applied with the thermal energy from the underside to the ink layer thereof. The thermal energy is used to sublime the coloring material so that the coloring material is thermally transferred to the printing paper. In such a manner, color images and characters are printed.
For more details, refer to Patent Document 1 (JP-A-6-340136), and Patent Document 2 (JP-A-9-187977).